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Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America and their descendants

Terminology

Indígenas or pueblos indígenas ("indigenous peoples") is a common term in Spanish-speaking countries, and pueblos nativos or nativos (lit. "native peoples") may also be heard, while aborigen (aborigine) is used in Argentina, and pueblos aborígenes (aboriginal peoples) is common in Chile. The term "Amerindian" (short for "'Indians of the Americas") is used in Quebec, the Guianas, and the English-speaking Caribbean.[26][27][28][29] In Brazil, indígenas or povos indígenas are common if formal-sounding designations, while índio is still the more often-heard term (the noun for the Indian nationality being indiano), and aborígene and nativo being rarely used in Amerindian-specific contexts (e.g. aborígene is usually understood as the ethnonym for Indigenous Australians). Indigenous peoples are commonly known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, which includes not only First Nations and Arctic Inuit, but also the minority population of First Nations-European mixed-race Métis people[30] who identify culturally and ethnically with indigenous peoplehood. This is contrasted, for instance, to the American Indian-European mixed-race mestizos of Hispanic America (caboclos in Brazil) who, with their larger population (in most Latin American countries constituting either outright majorities, pluralities, or at the least large minorities), identify largely as a new ethnic group distinct from both Europeans and Indigenous Americans, but still considering themselves a subset of the European-derived Hispanic or Brazilian peoplehood in culture and ethnicity (cf. ladinos).

Application of the term "Indian" originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for India, thought that he had arrived in the East Indies.[32][33][34][35][36][37] Eventually, those islands came to be known as the "West Indies", a name still used. This led to the blanket term "Indies" and "Indians" (Spanish indios, Portuguese índios) for the indigenous inhabitants, which implied some kind of racial or cultural unity among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. This unifying concept, codified in law, religion, and politics, was not originally accepted by the myriad groups of indigenous peoples themselves, but has since been embraced, or tolerated, by many over the last two centuries.[] Even though the term "Indian" generally does not include the culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Arctic regions of the Americas--such as the Aleuts, Inuit, or Yupik peoples, who entered the continent as a second more recent wave of migration several thousand years before, and have much more recent genetic and cultural commonalities with the aboriginal peoples of the Asiatic Arctic Russian Far East--these groups are nonetheless considered "indigenous peoples of the Americas". The Portuguese and Spanish equivalents to Indian, nevertheless, could be used to mean any hunter-gatherer or full-blooded Indigenous person, particularly to continents other than Europe or Africa--for example, indios filipinos.

Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, including as far as South America.[52] Archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age.[53]

The time range of 40,000-16,500 years ago is debatable and probably will remain so for years to come.[38][39] The few agreements achieved to date include:[54][55]

origin from Central Asia (DNA studies reported in 2012 indicate the area of Altai Republic, with a separation of populations 20,000-25,000 years ago)[56]

In 2014, the autosomal DNA was sequenced of a 12,500+-year-old infant from Montana, whose remains were found in close association with several Clovis artifacts.[59] These are the Anzick-1 remains from the Anzick Clovis burial in Montana. The data indicate that the individual was closely related to present North American Native American populations. But, the DNA was ancestral to present-day South American and Central American Native American populations. The implication is that there was an early divergence between North American indigenous peoples and those of Central and South America. Ruled out were hypotheses which posit that invasions subsequent to the Clovis culture overwhelmed or assimilated previous migrants into the Americas.[59] After study, the remains were returned to Montana for burial by Native Americans.

Similarly, the skeleton of a teenage girl (named 'Naia' after a water nymph from Greek mythology) was found in 2007 in the underwater caves called sistema Sac Actun in Mexico's eastern Yucatán Peninsula. DNA was extracted and dated. The skeleton was found to be 13,000 years old, and it is considered the oldest genetically intact human skeleton ever found in the Americas. The DNA indicates she was from a lineage derived from Asian origins and also represented in the DNA of the modern native population.[60]

The remains of two infants found at the Upward Sun River site have been dated to 11,500 years ago. They show that all Native Americans descended from a single founding population that initially split from East Asians around 36,000 years ago. They also show that the basal northern and southern Native American branches, to which all other indigenous Americans belong, diverged around 16,000 years ago.[61]

Pre-Columbian era

Language families of indigenous peoples in North America: shown across present-day Canada, Greenland, the United States, and northern Mexico

The Norte Chico civilization (in present-day Peru) is one of the defining six original civilizations of the world, arising independently around the same time as that of Egypt.[64][65] Many later pre-Columbian civilizations achieved great complexity, with hallmarks that included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first significant European and African arrivals (ca. late 15th-early 16th centuries), and are known only through oral history and through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with the contact and colonization period, and were documented in historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Mayan, Olmec, Mixtec, and Nahua peoples, had their own written languages and records. However, the European colonists of the time worked to eliminate non-Christian beliefs, and burned many pre-Columbian written records. Only a few documents remained hidden and survived, leaving contemporary historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.

According to both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations before and at the time of European encounter had achieved great complexity and many accomplishments.[66] For instance, the Aztecs built one of the largest cities in the world, Tenochtitlan, the ancient site of Mexico City, with an estimated population of 200,000. American civilizations also displayed impressive accomplishments in astronomy and mathematics. The domestication of maize or corn required thousands of years of selective breeding, and continued cultivation of multiple varieties was done with planning and selection, generally by women.

Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, and American Indian creation myths tell of a variety of origins of their respective peoples. Some were "always there" or were created by gods or animals, some migrated from a specified compass point, and others came from "across the ocean".[67]

European colonization

Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact

The European colonization of the Americas fundamentally changed the lives and cultures of the native peoples of the continents. Although the exact pre-colonization population-count of the Americas is unknown, scholars estimate that Native American populations diminished by between 80% and 90% within the first centuries of contact with Europeans. The majority of these losses are attributed to the introduction of Afro-Eurasian diseases into the Americas. Epidemics ravaged the Americas with diseases such as smallpox, measles, and cholera, which the early colonists and African slaves brought from Europe. The disease spread was slow initially, as Europeans were poor vectors for transferring the disease due to their natural exposure. This changed with the mass importation of Western and Central Africans slaves, who like the Native Americans lacked any resistances to the diseases of Europe and Northern Africa. These two groups were able to maintain a population large enough for diseases such as smallpox to spread rapidly amongst themselves. In 1520, contact with an African who had been infected with smallpox had arrived in Yucatán. By 1558, the disease had spread throughout South America and had arrived at the Plata basin.[68] Colonist violence towards indigenous peoples exacerbated the loss of lives. European colonists perpetrated massacres on the indigenous groups and enslaved them.[69][70][71] According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894), the North American Indian Wars of the 19th century cost the lives of about 19,000 Europeans and 30,000 Native Americans.[72]

The first indigenous group encountered by Columbus, the 250,000 Taínos of Hispaniola, represented the dominant culture in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. Within thirty years about 70% of the Taínos had died.[73] They had no immunity to European diseases, so outbreaks of measles and smallpox ravaged their population.[74] One such outbreak occurred in an African slave camp, where smallpox spread to the nearby Taínos populations and reduced their numbers by 50%.[68] Increasing punishment of the Taínos for revolting against forced labor, despite measures put in place by the encomienda, which included religious education and protection from warring tribes,[75] eventually led to the last great Taíno rebellion (1511-1529).

Following years of mistreatment, the Taínos began to adopt suicidal behaviors, with women aborting or killing their infants and men jumping from cliffs or ingesting untreated cassava, a violent poison.[73] Eventually, a Taíno Cacique named Enriquillo managed to hold out in the Baoruco Mountain Range for thirteen years, causing serious damage to the Spanish, Carib-held plantations and their Indian auxiliaries.[76][not in citation given] Hearing of the seriousness of the revolt,
Emperor Charles V (also King of Spain) sent captain Francisco Barrionuevo to negotiate a peace treaty with the ever-increasing number of rebels. Two months later, after consultation with the Audencia of Santo Domingo, Enriquillo was offered any part of the island to live in peace.

The Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513, were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in America, particularly with regard to native Indians. The laws forbade the maltreatment of natives and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism.[77] The Spanish crown found it difficult to enforce these laws in distant colonies.

Various theories for the decline of the Native American populations emphasize epidemic diseases, conflicts with Europeans, and conflicts among warring tribes. Among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.[78][79] After initial contact with Europeans and Africans, Old World diseases caused the deaths of 90 to 95% of the native population of the New World in the following 150 years.[80]Smallpox killed from one third to half of the native population of Hispaniola in 1518.[81][82] By killing the Incan ruler Huayna Capac, smallpox caused the Inca Civil War of 1529-1532. Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618--all ravaged the remains of Inca culture.

Smallpox killed millions of native inhabitants of Mexico.[83][84] Unintentionally introduced at Veracruz with the arrival of Pánfilo de Narváez on April 23, 1520, smallpox ravaged Mexico in the 1520s,[85] possibly killing over 150,000 in Tenochtitlán (the heartland of the Aztec Empire) alone, and aiding in the victory of Hernán Cortés over the Aztec Empire at Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) in 1521.[][68]

There are many factors as to why Native Americans suffered such immense losses from Afro-Eurasian diseases. After the land bridge separated the human populations of the Old World and the New World, the Native Americans lost many of the immunities their ancestors possessed. In addition, Europeans acquired many diseases, like cow pox, from domestication of animals that the Native Americans did not have access to. While Europeans adapted to these diseases, there was no way for Native Americans to acquire those diseases and build up resistances to them. Finally, many of the European diseases that were brought over to the Americas were diseases, like yellow fever, that were relatively manageable if infected as a child, but were deadly if infected as an adult. Children could survive the disease and that individual would have immunity to the disease for the rest of their life. Upon contact with the adult populations of Native Americans, these childhood diseases were very fatal.[86][68]

Colonization of the Caribbean led to the destruction of the Arawaks of the Lesser Antilles. Their culture was destroyed by 1650. Only 500 had survived by the year 1550, though the bloodlines continued through to the modern populace. In Amazonia, indigenous societies weathered, and continue to suffer, centuries of colonization and genocide.[87]

Indigenous people at a Brazilian farm plantation in Minas Gerais ca. 1824

The Spanish Empire and other Europeans re-introduced horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild.[100]
The re-introduction of the horse, extinct in the Americas for over 7500 years, had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America and in Patagonia in South America. By domesticating horses, some tribes had great success: horses enabled them to expand their territories, exchange more goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game, especially bison.

Agriculture

Plants

In the course of thousands of years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute between 50% and 60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.[101] In certain cases, the indigenous peoples developed entirely new species and strains through artificial selection, as with the domestication and breeding of maize from wild teosinte grasses in the valleys of southern Mexico. Numerous such agricultural products retain their native names in the English and Spanish lexicons.

The South American highlands became a center of early agriculture. Genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species suggests that the potato has a single origin in the area of southern Peru,[102] from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex. Over 99% of all modern cultivated potatoes worldwide are descendants of a subspecies indigenous to south-central Chile,[103]Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum, where it was cultivated as long as 10,000 years ago.[104][105] According to Linda Newson, "It is clear that in pre-Columbian times some groups struggled to survive and often suffered food shortages and famines, while others enjoyed a varied and substantial diet."[106]
Persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (AD 1454) was a major catastrophe in Mexico.[107]

Natives of North America began practicing farming approximately 4,000 years ago, late in the Archaic period of North American cultures. Technology had advanced to the point where pottery had started to become common and the small-scale felling of trees had become feasible. Concurrently, the Archaic Indians began using fire in a controlled manner. They carried out intentional burning of vegetation to mimic the effects of natural fires that tended to clear forest understories. It made travel easier and facilitated the growth of herbs and berry-producing plants, which were important both for food and for medicines.[108]

Studies of contemporary indigenous environmental management -- including of agro-forestry practices among ItzaMaya in Guatemala and of hunting and fishing among the Menominee of Wisconsin -- suggest that longstanding "sacred values" may represent a summary of sustainable millennial traditions.[111]

Animals

Culture

Cultural practices in the Americas seem to have been shared mostly within geographical zones where distinct ethnic groups adopting shared cultural traits, similar technologies, and social organizations. An example of such a cultural area is Mesoamerica, where millennia of coexistence and shared development among the peoples of the region produced a fairly homogeneous culture with complex agricultural and social patterns. Another well-known example is the North American plains where until the 19th century several peoples shared the traits of nomadic hunter-gatherers based primarily on buffalo hunting.

Languages

The languages of the North American Indians have been classified into 56 groups or stock tongues, in which the spoken languages of the tribes may be said to centre. In connection with speech, reference may be made to gesture language which was highly developed in parts of this area.
Of equal interest is the picture writing especially well developed among the Chippewas and Delawares.[112]

Writing systems

The development of writing is counted among the many achievements and innovations of pre-Columbian American cultures. Independent from the development of writing in other areas of the world, the Mesoamerican region produced several indigenous writing systems beginning in the 1st millennium BCE. What may be the earliest-known example in the Americas of an extensive text thought to be writing is by the Cascajal Block. The Olmec hieroglyphs tablet has been indirectly dated from ceramic shards found in the same context to approximately 900 BCE, around the time that Olmec occupation of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán began to wane.[113]

The Maya writing system was a combination of phoneticsyllabic symbols and logograms--that is, it was a logosyllabic writing system. It is the only pre-Columbian writing system known to represent completely the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than one thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than about five hundred glyphs were in use, some two hundred of which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation.[114][115][116]

The Zapotec writing system is one of the earliest writing systems in the Americas.[117] The oldest example of the Zapotec script is a monument discovered in San José Mogote, dating from around from 600 BCE.[118] Zapotec writing was logographic and presumably syllabic.[117] The remains of the Zapotec writing system are present in the monumental architecture. There are only a few extant inscriptions, making study of this writing system difficult.

Spanish mendicants in the sixteenth century taught indigenous scribes in their communities to write their languages in Latin letters, and there are a large number of local-level documents in Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Yucatec Maya from the colonial era, many of which were part of lawsuits and other legal matters. Although Spaniards initially taught indigenous scribes alphabetic writing, the tradition became self-perpetuating at the local level.[120] The Spanish crown gathered such documentation, and contemporary Spanish translations were made for legal cases. Scholars have translated and analyzed these documents in what is called the New Philology to write histories of indigenous peoples from indigenous viewpoints.[121]

Native American music in North America is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often centers around drumming. Rattles, clapper sticks, and rasps were also popular percussive instruments. Flutes were made of rivercane, cedar, and other woods. The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step. The Apache fiddle is a single stringed instrument.[]

The music of the indigenous peoples of Central Mexico and Central America was often pentatonic. Before the arrival of the Spaniards and other Europeans, music was inseparable from religious festivities and included a large variety of percussion and wind instruments such as drums, flutes, sea snail shells (used as a trumpet) and "rain" tubes. No remnants of pre-Columbian stringed instruments were found until archaeologists discovered a jar in Guatemala, attributed to the Maya of the Late Classic Era (600-900 CE), which depicts a stringed musical instrument which has since been reproduced. This instrument is one of the very few stringed instruments known in the Americas prior to the introduction of European musical instruments; when played, it produces a sound that mimics a jaguar's growl.[122]

Demography

Current distribution of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (not including mestizos, zambos and pardos)

This map shows the percentage of indigenous population in different countries of the Americas.

The following table provides estimates for each country in the Americas of the populations of indigenous people and those with partial indigenous ancestry, each expressed as a percentage of the overall population. The total percentage obtained by adding both of these categories is also given.

Note: these categories are inconsistently defined and measured differently from country to country. Some figures are based on the results of population-wide genetic surveys while others are based on self-identification or observational estimation.

Indigenous populations of the Americasas estimated percentage of total country's population

History and status by continent and country

North America

Canada

Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies.

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations,[151]Inuit[152] and Métis;[153] the descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" are falling into disuse. "Indian" is a name that originated from foreigners. In Canada, it is quite frowned upon to use the name "Indian" in casual conversation.[154] "Eskimo" is considered derogatory in many other places because it was given by non-Inuit people and was said to mean "eater of raw meat."[155]
Hundreds of Aboriginal nations evolved trade, spiritual and social hierarchies. The Métis ethnicity developed a culture from the mid-17th century after generations of First Nations and native Inuit married European settlers. They were small farmers, hunters and trappers, and usually Catholic and French-speaking.[156] The Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during that early period.[157] Various laws, treaties, and legislation have been enacted between European-Canadians and First Nations across Canada. Aboriginal Right to Self-Government provides the opportunity for First Nations to manage their own historical, cultural, political, health care and economic control within their communities.

Although not without conflict, European/Canadian early interactions in the east with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful compared to the later experience of native peoples in the United States.[158] Combined with a late economic development in many regions,[159] this relatively peaceful history resulted in Indigenous peoples having a fairly strong influence on the early national culture, while preserving their own identity.[160] From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged Aboriginals to assimilate into the mainstream European-influenced culture, which they referred to as Canadian culture.[161] The government attempted forced integration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[162]National Aboriginal Day recognises the cultures and contributions of Aboriginal peoples of Canada.[163] There are currently over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands encompassing 1,172,790 2006 people spread across Canada, with distinctive Aboriginal cultures, languages, art, and music.[164][165][166]

Native Americans in the United States make up 0.97%[168] to 2% of the population. In the 2010 census, 2.9 million people identified as Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native alone. A total of 5.2 million people identified as Native Americans, either alone or in combination with one or more ethnicity or other races.[5] 1.8 million are enrolled tribal members.[] Tribes have established their own criteria for membership, which are often based on blood quantum, lineal descent, or residency. A minority of Native Americans live in land units called Indian reservations. Some California and Southwestern tribes, such as the Kumeyaay, Cocopa, Pascua Yaqui and Apache, span both sides of the US-Mexican border. By treaty, Haudenosaunee people have the legal right to freely cross the US-Canada border. Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Iñupiat, Blackfeet, Nakota, Cree, Anishinaabe, Huron, Lenape, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, and Haudenosaunee, among others, live in both Canada and the United States. The international border cut through their common cultural territory.

In contrast to what was the general rule in the rest of North America, the history of the colony of New Spain was one of racial intermingling (mestizaje). Mestizos, which in Mexico designate people who do not identify culturally with any indigenous grouping, quickly came to account for a majority of the colony's population; but 6% of the Mexican population identify as speakers of one of the indigenous languages. The CDI identifies 62 indigenous groups in Mexico, each with a unique language.[169]

The General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples grants all indigenous languages spoken in Mexico, regardless of the number of speakers, the same validity as Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken, and indigenous peoples are entitled to request some public services and documents in their native languages.[170] Along with Spanish, the law has granted them--more than 60 languages--the status of "national languages". The law includes all indigenous languages of the Americas regardless of origin; that is, it includes the indigenous languages of ethnic groups non-native to the territory. The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the language of the Kickapoo, who immigrated from the United States,[171] and recognizes the languages of the Guatemalan indigenous refugees.[172] The Mexican government has promoted and established bilingual primary and secondary education in some indigenous rural communities. Nonetheless, of the indigenous peoples in Mexico, only about 67% of them (or 5.4% of the country's population) speak an indigenous language and about a sixth do not speak Spanish (1.2% of the country's population).[173]

The indigenous peoples in Mexico have the right of free determination under the second article of the constitution. According to this article the indigenous peoples are granted:[174]

the right to decide the internal forms of social, economic, political and cultural organization;

El Salvador

Much of El Salvador was home to the Pipil, the Lenca, Xinca, and Kakawira. The Pipil lived in western El Salvador, spoke Nawat, and had many settlements there, most noticeably Cuzcatlan. The Pipil had no precious mineral resources, but they did have rich and fertile land that was good for farming. The Spaniards were disappointed not to find gold or jewels in El Salvador as they had in other lands like Guatemala or Mexico, but upon learning of the fertile land in El Salvador, they attempted to conquer it. Noted Meso-American indigenous warriors to rise militarily against the Spanish included Princes Atonal and Atlacatl of the Pipil people in central El Salvador and Princess Antu Silan Ulap of the Lenca people in eastern El Salvador, who saw the Spanish not as gods but as barbaric invaders. After fierce battles, the Pipil successfully fought off the Spanish army led by Pedro de Alvarado along with their Mexican Indian allies (the Tlaxcalas), sending them back to Guatemala. After many other attacks with an army reinforced with Guatemalan Indian allies, the Spanish were able to conquer Cuzcatlan. After further attacks, the Spanish also conquered the Lenca people. Eventually, the Spaniards intermarried with Pipil and Lenca women, resulting in the Mestizo population which would become the majority of the Salvadoran people. Today many Pipil and other indigenous populations live in the many small towns of El Salvador like Izalco, Panchimalco, Sacacoyo, and Nahuizalco.

Guatemala

Maya women from Guatemala

Guatemala has one of the largest Indigenous populations in Central America, with approximately 39.3% of the population considering themselves Indigenous.[176] The Indigenous demographic portion of Guatemala's population consists of majority Mayan groups and one Non-Mayan group. The Mayan portion, can be broken down into 23 groups namely K'iche 11.3%, Kaqchikel 7.4%, Mam 5.5%, Q'eqchi' 7.6% and Other 7.5%.[176] The Non-Mayan group consists of the Xinca who are another set of Indigenous people making up 0.5% of the population.[176]

The Mayan tribes cover a vast geographic area throughout Central America and expanding beyond Guatemala into other countries. One could find vast groups of Mayan people in Boca Costa, in the Southern portions of Guatemala, as well as the Western Highlands living together in close communities.[177] Within these communities and outside of them, around 23 Indigenous languages or Amerindian Languages are spoken as a first language. Of these 23 languages, they only received official recognition by the Government in 2003 under the Law of National Languages.[176] The Law on National Languages recognizes 23 Indigenous languages including Xinca, enforcing that public and government institutions not only translate but also provide services in said languages.[178] It would provide services in Cakchiquel, Garifuna, Kekchi, Mam, Quiche and Xinca.[179]

A Mayan woman.

The Law of National Languages has been an effort to grant and protect Indigenous people rights not afforded to them previously. Along with the Law of National Languages passed in 2003, in 1996 the Guatemalan Constitutional Court had ratified the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.[180] The ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, is also known as Convention 169 . Which is the only International Law regarding Indigenous peoples that Independent countries can adopt. The Convention, establishes that Governments like Guatemala's must consult with Indigenous groups prior to any projects occurring on tribal lands.[181]

Honduras

About five percent of the population are of full-blooded indigenous descent, but upwards to eighty percent more or the majority of Hondurans are mestizo or part-indigenous with European admixture, and about ten percent are of indigenous or African descent.[182] The main concentration of indigenous in Honduras are in the rural westernmost areas facing Guatemala and to the Caribbean Sea coastline, as well on the Nicaraguan border.[182] The majority of indigenous people are Lencas, Miskitos to the east, Mayans, Pech, Sumos, and Tolupan.[182]

South America

Argentina

In 2005, Argentina's indigenous population (known as pueblos originarios) numbered about 600,329 (1.6% of total population); this figure includes 457,363 people who self-identified as belonging to an indigenous ethnic group and 142,966 who identified themselves as first-generation descendants of an indigenous people.[185] The ten most populous indigenous peoples are the Mapuche (113,680 people), the Kolla (70,505), the Toba (69,452), the Guaraní (68,454), the Wichi (40,036), the Diaguita–Calchaquí (31,753), the Mocoví (15,837), the Huarpe (14,633), the Comechingón (10,863) and the Tehuelche (10,590). Minor but important peoples are the Quechua (6,739), the Charrúa (4,511), the Pilagá (4,465), the Chané (4,376), and the Chorote (2,613). The Selknam (Ona) people are now virtually extinct in its pure form. The languages of the Diaguita, Tehuelche, and Selknam nations have become extinct or virtually extinct: the Cacán language (spoken by Diaguitas) in the 18th century and the Selknam language in the 20th century; one Tehuelche language (Southern Tehuelche) is still spoken by a handful of elderly people.

Bolivia

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2012)

Bolivia and Peru have majority-Native American populations, including mestizos.

In Bolivia, the 2001 census reported that 62% of residents over the age of 15 identify as belonging to an indigenous people. Some 3.7% report growing up with an indigenous mother tongue but do not identify as indigenous.[186] When both of these categories are totaled, and children under 15, some 66.4% of Bolivia's population was recorded as indigenous in the 2001 Census.[187]

The largest indigenous ethnic groups are: Quechua, about 2.5 million people; Aymara, 2.0 million; Chiquitano, 181,000; Guaraní, 126,000; and Mojeño, 69,000. Some 124,000 belong to smaller indigenous groups.[188] The Constitution of Bolivia, enacted in 2009, recognizes 36 cultures, each with its own language, as part of a pluri-national state. Some groups, including CONAMAQ (the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu), draw ethnic boundaries within the Quechua- and Aymara-speaking population, resulting in a total of 50 indigenous peoples native to Bolivia.

Large numbers of Bolivian highland peasants retained indigenous language, culture, customs, and communal organization throughout the Spanish conquest and the post-independence period. They mobilized to resist various attempts at the dissolution of communal landholdings and used legal recognition of "empowered caciques" to further communal organization. Indigenous revolts took place frequently until 1953.[189] While the National Revolutionary Movement government begun in 1952 discouraged people identifying as indigenous (reclassifying rural people as campesinos, or peasants), renewed ethnic and class militancy re-emerged in the Katarista movement beginning in the 1970s.[190] Many lowland indigenous peoples, mostly in the east, entered national politics through the 1990 March for Territory and Dignity organized by the CIDOB confederation. That march successfully pressured the national government to sign the ILO Convention 169 and to begin the still-ongoing process of recognizing and giving official title to indigenous territories. The 1994 Law of Popular Participation granted "grassroots territorial organizations;" these are recognized by the state and have certain rights to govern local areas.

Some radio and television programs are produced in the Quechua and Aymara languages. The constitutional reform in 1997 recognized Bolivia as a multi-lingual, pluri-ethnic society and introduced education reform. In 2005, for the first time in the country's history, an indigenous Aymara, Evo Morales, was elected as President.

Morales began work on his "indigenous autonomy" policy, which he launched in the eastern lowlands department on August 3, 2009. Bolivia was the first nation in the history of South America to affirm the right of indigenous people to self-government.[191] Speaking in Santa Cruz Department, the President called it "a historic day for the peasant and indigenous movement", saying that, though he might make errors, he would "never betray the fight started by our ancestors and the fight of the Bolivian people."[191] A vote on further autonomy for jurisdictions took place in December 2009, at the same time as general elections to office. The issue divided the country.[192]

At that time, indigenous peoples voted overwhelmingly for more autonomy: five departments that had not already done so voted for it;[193][194] as did Gran Chaco Province in Taríja, for regional autonomy;[195] and 11 of 12 municipalities that had referendums on this issue.[193]

Brazil

Indigenous peoples of Brazil make up 0.4% of Brazil's population, or about 817,000 people, but millions of Brazilians are mestizo or have some indigenous ancestry.[196] Indigenous peoples are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although in the 21st century, the majority of them live in indigenous territories in the North and Center-Western part of the country. On January 18, 2007, Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI) reported that it had confirmed the presence of 67 different uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005. Brazil is now the nation that has the largest number of uncontacted tribes, and the island of New Guinea is second.[196]

The Washington Post reported in 2007, "As has been proved in the past when uncontacted tribes are introduced to other populations and the microbes they carry, maladies as simple as the common cold can be deadly. In the 1970s, 185 members of the Panara tribe died within two years of discovery after contracting such diseases as flu and chickenpox, leaving only 69 survivors."[197]

Chile

Mapuche man and woman. The Mapuche make up about 85% of Chile's indigenous population.

Colombia

A minority today within Colombia's overwhelmingly Mestizo and White Colombian population, Colombia's indigenous peoples consist of around 85 distinct cultures and more than 1,378,884 people.[199][200] A variety of collective rights for indigenous peoples are recognized in the 1991 Constitution.

Ecuador

Ecuador was the site of many indigenous cultures, and civilizations of different proportions. An early sedentary culture, known as the Valdivia culture, developed in the coastal region, while the Caras and the Quitus unified to form an elaborate civilization that ended at the birth of the Capital Quito. The Cañaris near Cuenca were the most advanced, and most feared by the Inca, due to their fierce resistance to the Incan expansion. Their architecture remains were later destroyed by Spaniards and the Incas.

Approximately 96.4% of Ecuador's Indigenous population are Highland Quichuas living in the valleys of the Sierra region. Primarily consisting of the descendants of peoples conquered by the Incas, they are Kichwa speakers and include the Caranqui, the Otavalos, the Cayambe, the Quitu-Caras, the Panzaleo, the Chimbuelo, the Salasacan, the Tugua, the Puruhá, the Cañari, and the Saraguro. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Salascan and the Saraguro may have been the descendants of Bolivian ethnic groups transplanted to Ecuador as mitimaes.

Coastal groups, including the Awá, Chachi, and the Tsáchila, make up 0.24% percent of the indigenous population, while the remaining 3.35 percent live in the Oriente and consist of the Oriente Kichwa (the Canelo and the Quijos), the Shuar, the Huaorani, the Siona-Secoya, the Cofán, and the Achuar.

Peru

Indigenous population in Peru make up around 25% approximately.[4] Native Peruvian traditions and customs have shaped the way Peruvians live and see themselves today. Cultural citizenship--or what Renato Rosaldo has called, "the right to be different and to belong, in a democratic, participatory sense" (1996:243)--is not yet very well developed in Peru. This is perhaps no more apparent than in the country's Amazonian regions where indigenous societies continue to struggle against state-sponsored economic abuses, cultural discrimination, and pervasive violence.[201]

Suriname

Venezuela

Most Venezuelans have some indigenous heritage and are pardo, even if they identify as white. But those who identify as indigenous, from being raised in those cultures, make up only around 2% of the total population. The indigenous peoples speak around 29 different languages and many more dialects. As some of the ethnic groups are very small, their native languages are in danger of becoming extinct in the next decades. The most important indigenous groups are the Ye'kuana, the Wayuu, the Pemon and the Warao. The most advanced native people to have lived within the boundaries of present-day Venezuela is thought to have been the Timoto-cuicas, who lived mainly in the Venezuelan Andes. Historians estimate that there were between 350 thousand and 500 thousand indigenous inhabitants at the time of Spanish colonization. The most densely populated area was the Andean region (Timoto-cuicas), thanks to their advanced agricultural techniques and ability to produce a surplus of food.

The 1999 constitution of Venezuela gives the indigenous special rights, although the vast majority of them still live in very critical conditions of poverty. The government provides primary education in their languages in public schools to some of the largest groups, in efforts to continue the languages.

Other parts of the Americas

Indigenous peoples make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and Peru, and are a significant element in most other former Spanish colonies. Exceptions to this include Uruguay (Native Charrúa). According to the 2011 Census, 2.4% of Uruguayans reported having indigenous ancestry.[149] Some governments recognize some of the major Native American languages as official languages: Quechua in Peru and Bolivia; Aymara also in Peru and Bolivia, Guarani in Paraguay, and Greenlandic in Greenland.

In Cuba, the population of Amerindians includes 0.1 of the population and 0.2 part Native which is also part of the population. Many are from the Taíno people or Arawak people. When the Spanish Empire was in control of the island they used the Natives as slaves and many died from diseases, hence decreasing the population. Presently 0.3 of the population of Cuba consists of part Native and full-blooded Amerindians.

Dominica

Dominica is home to the Carib Territory, one of the last indigenous communities in the Caribbean. The Carib Territory is home to an estimated 3,000 Kalinago or Carib people.

Native American name controversy

The Native American name controversy relates to the dispute over acceptable ways to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas and to broad subsets thereof, such as those living in a specific country or sharing certain cultural attributes. Early settlers often adopted terms that some tribes used for each other, not realizing these were derogatory terms used by enemies. When discussing broader subsets of peoples, naming may be based on shared language, region, or historical relationship. Many English exonyms have been used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Some of these names were based on foreign-language terms used by earlier explorers and colonists, while others resulted from the colonists' attempts to translate or transliterate endonyms from the native languages. Other terms arose during periods of conflict between the colonizers and indigenous peoples.

Since the late 20th century, indigenous peoples in the Americas have been more vocal about how they want to be addressed, pushing to suppress use of terms widely considered to be obsolete, inaccurate, or racist. During the latter half of the 20th century and the rise of the Indian rights movement, the United States government responded by proposing the use of the term "Native American," to recognize the primacy of indigenous peoples' tenure in the nation. As may be expected among people of different cultures, not all Native Americans or American Indians agree on its use. No single group naming convention has been accepted by all indigenous peoples. They prefer to be addressed as people of their tribe or nations.

In Colombia, various indigenous groups have protested the denial of their rights. People organized a march in Cali in October 2008 to demand the government live up to promises to protect indigenous lands, defend the indigenous against violence, and reconsider the free trade pact with the United States.[202]

Legal prerogative

The first indigenous candidate to be democratically elected as head of a country in Latin America was Benito Juárez, a Zapotec Mexican; he was elected President of Mexico in 1858.[203]

Evo Morales (Aymara people) was the first indigenous candidate elected as president of Bolivia, in 2006, and the first in South America. He has been twice re-elected. His election encouraged the indigenous movement across Latin America.

Representatives from indigenous and rural organizations from major South American countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Brazil, started a forum in support of Morales' legal process of change. The meeting condemned plans by the European "foreign power elite" to destabilize the country. The forum also expressed solidarity with Morales and his economic and social changes in the interest of historically marginalized majorities. It questioned US interference through diplomats and NGOs. The forum was suspicious of plots against Bolivia and other countries that elected leftist leaders, including Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and Nicaragua.[204]

The forum rejected the supposed violent method used by regional civic leaders from the called "Crescent departments" in Bolivia to impose autonomous statutes, applauded the decision to expel the US ambassador to Bolivia, and reaffirmed the sovereignty and independence of the presidency. Amongst others, representatives of CONAIE, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, the Chilean Council of All Lands, and the Brazilian Landless Movement participated in the forum.[204]

Genetics

Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of Beringia, from 25,000 years ago to present

Scientific evidence links indigenous Americans to Asian peoples, specifically Siberian populations, such as the Ket, Selkup, Chukchi and Koryak peoples. Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been linked to North Asian populations by the distribution of blood types, and in genetic composition as reflected by molecular data, such as DNA.[207] There is general agreement among anthropologists that the source populations for the migration into the Americas originated from an area somewhere east of the Yenisei River. The common occurrence of the mtDNA Haplogroups A, B, C, and D among eastern Asian and Native American populations has long been recognized.[208] As a whole, the greatest frequency of the four Native American associated haplogroups occurs in the Altai–Baikal region of southern Siberia.[209] Some subclades of C and D closer to the Native American subclades occur among Mongolian, Amur, Japanese, Korean, and Ainu populations.[208][210]

A 2013 study in Nature reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy from the archaeological Mal'ta-Buret' culture suggest that up to one-third of the indigenous Americans may have ancestry that can be traced back to western Eurasians, who may have "had a more north-easterly distribution 24,000 years ago than commonly thought".[228] "We estimate that 14 to 38 percent of Native American ancestry may originate through gene flow from this ancient population", the authors wrote. Professor Kelly Graf said,

Our findings are significant at two levels. First, it shows that Upper Paleolithic Siberians came from a cosmopolitan population of early modern humans that spread out of Africa to Europe and Central and South Asia. Second, Paleoindian skeletons like Buhl Woman with phenotypic traits atypical of modern-day indigenous Americans can be explained as having a direct historical connection to Upper Paleolithic Siberia.

A route through Beringia is seen as more likely than the Solutrean hypothesis.[228] Kashani et al. 2012 state that "The similarities in ages and geographical distributions for C4c and the previously analyzed X2a lineage provide support to the scenario of a dual origin for Paleo-Indians. Taking into account that C4c is deeply rooted in the Asian portion of the mtDNA phylogeny and is indubitably of Asian origin, the finding that C4c and X2a are characterized by parallel genetic histories definitively dismisses the controversial hypothesis of an Atlantic glacial entry route into North America."[229]

^Ancient Horse (Equus cf. E. complicatus), The Academy of Natural Sciences, Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection, Philadelphia, (See: species Equus scotti) Other horse species had died out at the end of the last ice age with other megafauna. Archived 29 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.

^Gill, Richardson Benedict (2001) [2000]. "5. Famine and Social Dissolution". The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death (revised ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. p. 123. ISBN9780826327741. Retrieved 2018. In Tenochtitlan, during the famine of 1 Rabbit in 1454, Moctezuma Ilhuicamina distributed food from the royal granaries to the poor. When the stores ran out, he gave permission for the populace to leave the city to find food elsewhere and people left. The populations of Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, and Tepanecapan also fled their cities. The Maya Lowlands appear to have suffered a famine at the same time, and the cities of Chichen Itza, Mayapan, and Uxmal appear to have been all abandoned simultaneously [...].

Sources

Nimmo, J. (2008). "Young children's access to real life: An examination of the growing boundaries between children in child care and adults in the community". Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. 9 (1): 3-13. doi:10.2304/ciec.2008.9.1.3.

Books

Cappel, Constance (2007). The Smallpox Genocide of the Odawa Tribe at L'Arbre Croche, 1763: The History of a Native American People. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN978-0-7734-5220-6. OCLC175217515.